fimbul

I don't know that Doro Wat is made exclusively from game hens. I've always had it made from the plain ol' run-of-the-mill chickens. The one time I made Doro Wat myself, the recipe I was following called for one roaster-sized bird... to feed 6, I think.

My father hates Cornish Game Hens because he dislikes eating with his hands (some people are too fastidious for their own good). I once played the smartass and served him game hens that I'd deboned, stuffed with spinach and preserved lemon, and rolled into neat lttle packages. It impressed him, but it took all the fun out of eating for me. Game Hens are an excuse to make your plate look like Hannibal Lecter's compost pile, dammit!

Bone-in pork loin chops with citrus-rosemary pan sauce Sauteed leeks with a tomato-parmesan vinaigrette Argula, spinach, and basil leaf salad with lemon vinaigrette Served with iced tea and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Eh. It was okay.

This place is awesome; I've meant to mention on this board a thousand times but never got around to it. I work not far away and I too eat there about once a week. When you go back, make sure to try their ginger salad and the pork in mango pickle. The ginger salad in particular is to die for: thin strips of ginger and cabbage tossed with tomatoes, peanuts, dried (roasted?) chickpeas, and some dressing I can't pin down. I adore the stuff. Edit: Just wanted to add a recommendation for the Chicken Kadai at the Bombay Curry Club. It's dandy, and hot enough to be interesting without taking your face off (which their vindaloo might do, depending on who's in the kitchen).

Last night was my SO's first chance to cook in a while, so she had a bit of fun with it: Grilled venison medallions Grilled asparagus Grilled bread with sauteed black trumpet mushrooms and shallots Arugula salad with (really nice!) tomatoes from SO's grandmother's garden in FL, olives, capers, spring onions, lemon, and olive oil. Served with iced tea.

And a ghastly name for a smoothie bar. A little like naming your salad bar "Soylent Greens."

Gah! Over the weekend I decided I wanted to open a place called Vlad Tapas. I'll serve all the dishes on vertical skewers of course. *sigh* If only it were still the late 90s, I could get someone to give me a million dollars for that idea....

According to this, they're a cross between two types of small chickens. They certainly taste just like chicken. Yeah, Cornish Game Hens are a silly substitute for game, unless what interests you about the game bird in question is its size rather than its flavour. They're not inherently bad, though (assuming you like chicken), they're just not gamey.

Friday night (had friends over): Chips and Salsa Mexicana Jicama cut into batons and served sprinkled with cayenne and lime juice Chilled Poblano soup Chicken legs marinated in achiote and citrus and baked in foil, served with minced Serrano chiles, marinated onions, salsa verde, and flour tortillas Chard sauteed in Ancho chile oil Molten chocolate cake thingies My weight in beer and some wine, plus more beer, followed by beer Saturday night (fed my girlfriend, who'd been cruelly forced to work on a Saturday): Chilled avocado soup topped with grated goat gouda and ground Ancho Pan seared Delmonico steaks served over caramelized sping onions with a tequila - Black Trumpet sauce Asaparagus sauteed in duck fat Oven-roasted home "fries" with ground chipotle, lime zest, and sea salt About a gabillion bottles of red wine Sunday night (fed my parents, who'd just returned from South Carolina): Seared, rare duck breast with Black Trumpet wine sauce (lots of Black Trumpets at the Farmer's Market this week) Quinoa pilaf with pepitas and shallots and a orange vinaigrette Sauteed spinach Arugula salad with red spring onions and a lemon vinaigrette Water

Red-curried duck for us last night. Curried the legs proper (in a sort of ad hoc Thai-meets-Indian curry that purists would do best not to ask about) and served them over jasmine rice. Marinated the breasts in a bit more of the curry paste, then seared them and served slices of the rare breast meat next to the legs. Topped it all with lots of chopped cilantro. Served with perfectly steamed green beans and a few bottles of the Dominion Brewery's Spring Brew.

You know, I recently ate something almost like this. It was still warm, cooked wheat berries tossed with gruyerre and satueed spinach -- I liked it quite a bit, though it did get overwhelmingly ...wheaty..? several bites in. A tapas sized portion might ameliorate that problem quickly, plus a sharp, nutty taste thrown in might help cut some of that as well.

I'll often slice them crosswise, then saute them in a touch of butter, then braise then in just a touch of wine (red, white... I bet you could use sherry, especially if you served them under fish). I've also used them whole to make a sort of roasting rack for roasting chickens. Recently, I sliced some leeks thinly, caramelized them in butter, then used them to top focaccia along with a little crumbled stilton and parmesan. I've also cooked them very, very slowly over low heat in butter and used them as a bed for thinly sliced rare beef. I like leeks. And wasn't Nero (the emperor not the eGulleteer) inordinately fond of leeks, or leek soup? If he's not good company, who is?

Monday night I cooked duck breasts. I marinated them in tamarind, achiote, garlic, and chiles, then seared them, roasted them, and served them overdone (dammit -- I was away just a minute to answer the phone!). With asparagus, smashed red potatoes, and a spinach salad. It was a good, quick meal that would've been better if the duck had been rare. Last night was "chicken kadai," my attempt to recreate a dish made at the Indian restaurant up the street. As a recreation it stank, but as a meal it was good, though mouth-numbingly hot. Served with basmati rice, cucumber raita, and zucchinni smothered with shallots and scallion greens. Sliced mango for dessert.

Went to the Springfield Butcher myself this Saturday. Bought some pork chops, a couple of huge duck breasts (1lb. apiece), and a couple of frozen boar arm-steaks. The pork was divine, the duck is marinating now, and the boar is in our freezer until we can grill it. I think I like that place.

So pretty! I want one! But I think my SO will kill me dead twice if I bring another large piece of cast-iron into our home. I'll ponder a bit, while angel and the devil on my shoulders play Rock Scissors Paper.

Balls! I've created a lightening rod for malcontents.

I'm trying to dream up a menu for some friends, and I wonder if some friendly eGulleteers might be able to help me. We're having over, in early May, a couple. They have specifically asked that I cook them "leetle birdies," and it seems they're particularly interested in trying squab. This suits me, as I've been looking for an excuse to cook squab again for awhile. My thought was this: I'd like to either spatchcock or bone-out almost entirely the squabs and saute them in achiote oil. Then I'd finish them in the oven, and serve them atop a grain, probably quinoa (been playing with combinations of achiote and quinoa all week -- it's a good mix). My trouble is that my kitchen is small, and squabs are awkward. Four splayed squabs are bigger than my 12" skillet will hold, so I can't just sear them atop the stove then stuff them inside to finish. Can I, do you think, saute the squabs singly before guests arrive, then roast them on a sheet pan in the oven at the last minute? Eh, for some reason, I'm muddled. Anyone feel like playing?

Thursday dinner was a weirdity. I was both trying out new flavors and trying to empty the fridge, so it became an odd mishmash. It went a little like this: Achiote-Spiked Quinoa with Toasted Pepitas Seared Tuna Steaks with Orange-Habanero Salsa Verde Rainbow Chard Sauteed in Ancho Chile oil Thily Sliced Cold Roast Veal Chop Served with plonk sparkling wine. It was pretty good, considering it was one of those meals where nothing seemed to be going right at all until I had it all on the table.

Grand. Now I'm imagining you cooking flying monkeys.

I too vote "both." More helpfully, though, I think _HSSS_ might be the one to get first. Both contain some daunting recipes and hard-to-find ingredients, but _HSSS_ is a notch less intimidating (and *so* purty!). If you want to choose the one to cook from now now now, that's your book -- you can probably easily find a recipe that you can cook after work from pantry staples or after a quick run to the store. You can buy _Thai Food_ later and pore over it leisurely. That's the one I'd want to cook from if I have a couple of days to shop and prepare.

I have nothing to add save that, the next time I do something off-color or inappropriate, I look forward to blaming it on "left over juices." This simply needs to be done: "Hey! You kicked the cat off the bed!" "Sorry, dear. Left over juices. You know. Had to be done."

Actually, eating breakfast does make me hungrier for lunch. Apparently, eating makes me hungry. I should stop eating so I don't eat so much.... There *has* to be a flaw in that, but damn me if I can find it. Edit: By the way, these days, I eat yogurt for breakfast. I find eating something early keeps me from going all spacey and irritable by mid-day.

Funny, my experience is the opposite. If I eat a very large meal in the evening, I'm ravenous early the next day. I know at least some of my friends share this quirk beause we've discussed it on the way to breakfast. I always asumed it was a normal thing. I think the way I rationalized it to myself was that I figured my body was in digestion mode: because I'd eaten a lot for dinner it was digesting like crazy, and hadn't thought to stop in time, thus leaving me plenty of room to eat a horse the morning after. I am, I admit, no nutritionist, so it may just be I'm a weirdie.

I had a microwave in college that I believe was a present from my folks. I used it all the time to microwave frozen burritos. When I moved out of my parents' house, I think that microwave was relegated to my dad's office, where it was used for I don't know what. In the meantime, I learned to live without a microwave. I really didn't remember why people like them. Now, my parents are cleaning house, and I have a microwave again. It's sitting in the basement, next to the TV and DVD player. Thus far (we've had it for ...3 months? now) it has been used to pop popcorn, soften frozen butter, melt frozen stock, and make hard ice cream scoopable NOWNOWNOW. A microwave is not essential to me by any means, and ours takes up more than its fair share of space even in the basement, but it's great to have when we want popcorn for movies or need some stock liquified quickly. I may never buy another one, but I'm kinda glad to have the one we've got.

My girlfriend's father gave us a gabillion or so leeks from his garden over the weekend, so, last night, we caramelized them and spread them on focaccia dough, then baked them until the crust was almost crisp. Then we topped the focaccia with crumbled stilton and some shaved parmesan, and finished the whole shebang on high heat. Served this with a salad of spinach leaves, romaine, and thinly sliced endive leaves tossed with a lemon-garlic vinaigrette. Drank with this a slightly chilled rose'.